Chapter 1

Poof! Dust rose in a cloud as the old woman dropped the large tome onto the old desk. She waited for the dust to settle before she opened it and flipped it to the desired page. “Arabella, I found it!” she said.

A young teen walked across the room and stood beside the old woman. “That’s great Gran, but what is it?”

Gran snorted. “What is it? This just happens to be the old time traveling spell that I wanted to show you.”

“Time travel? You actually believe in that?” Arabella asked.

“Of course I do. When I was your age I would travel back and forth in time.” Gran said.

“Could you teach me?” Arabella asked.

Gran shook her head. “No, you must learn this spell on your own. If I do everything, what knowledge would you gain?”

Arabella stayed silent. Gran sighed. “I’m going up to make lunch. When I get back you had better be practicing.”

Arabella sat down at the desk and stared at the dusty spell book. The spell was short, but she was distracted by the picture at the bottom of the page with a few notes scribbled beside it. The image was of a tree too large to be natural. Set into it was a small door and a boy about her age stood beside it. He had long hair, angular face, and gentle eyes. What did this have to do with the spell? She turned her attention to the note beside the picture. “…el bosc encantat…” Arabella said aloud. “What does that mean? Maybe I should try it with the spell.”

As she was halfway through the spell she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. “Arabella, are you down here?”

Arabella clenched her teeth and turned around to see her cousin Brock coming down the stairs. He stopped in his tracks as Arabella fixed him with a deadly glare. “You interrupted my incantation!”

He sighed and pushed his thick glasses back into place on his thin nose. “What were you trying to do?” he asked.

“I was trying to do a time traveling spell but you and all your nerdiness interrupted me!”

Brock laughed. “Time travel is impossible. Knowing you that even if you could do it you would go back too far and get eaten by a dinosaur!”

Arabella scowled at him. “I would not. You’re just jealous that I possess the powers of a sorceress and you don’t. Now shut up so I can retry this spell!”

She began reciting the spell again and for the last bit she added the words” …el bosc encantat…”suddenly a bright swirling vortex appeared. Brock was dumbfounded, but came back to reality when Arabella yelled, “toss me my backpack and the spell book! The portal’s magic is pulling me in!”

He quickly gave her the items just as the portal began to close, taking her along with it.

A sickening sensation twisted in her stomach as she was pulled into the vortex and Brock vanished from sight. Arabella clung tightly to the ancient spell book. It was the only thing that could take her back home from wherever she was heading. Then suddenly she felt a rush of cold air and when she looked down, she saw that she was falling through a canopy of tree branches and was heading straight for the damp earth below. Arabella opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. The ground was swiftly coming closer. She closed her eyes preparing for impact, but when she was inches away from the ground she felt something stop her fall. She slowly opened both eyes and looked up into the face of a young man.

He had caught her in mid-fall and held her in his strong arms. The man had bright flame red hair that was braided down his back. He had eyes the color of liquid gold that softened his striking features. He gently helped her stand upright. Arabella felt dizzy, but managed to hang onto her spell book. She watched as the young man picked up her backpack from where it had landed. When he was turned around she saw that he had a long bow strung on his shoulder and a quiver of arrows that were fletched with owl feathers for silent flight. He unzipped a pocket of the backpack and began searching through it. “Hey! Stop, that’s my stuff!” Arabella yelled.

She ran and tore the bag from his grasp and all of its contents spilled onto the ground. He knelt down to help her pick up her stuff and they both accidentally reached for her cell phone and his hand rested on top of hers. His face flushed as bright as his hair as he quickly removed his hand. He stood looking embarrassed while she picked up the rest of her belongings. Arabella stood up and put the spell book into her bag as well. “So, who are you? You haven’t said anything. Do you speak English?”

“I am called Aiden. What do they call ye?”The young man said. He had a slight accent that sounded Scottish.

“I’m Arabella, sorceress in training.” She replied.

Aiden smiled. “I am glad to hear that. I knew you were no ordinary human. Can I trust you?”

Arabella nodded. “Good. Although I look like it I am not human. I am a kitsune or a nine tailed fox in human form. Come, the council leader will want to speak with you.”

Story summary

When a sorceress tries to perform a spell everything goes wrong when she is sucked through a magical portal to another dimention. There she meets many colorful characters who end up needing her help to win a war that's been going on for centuries.

Select a previous page...

Note: Keep in mind that the From: field of the email message sent by this form will contain your email address,
and will therefore be available to the recipient. If you're not comfortable with this, please
close this window.